


A Simple Message

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Fireside Tales [72]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, GFY, Gen, original character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:45:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1190724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He cannot unsee the broken body, so delicate and so strong, sprawled on the ground before he can get to her. Slaughtered by the nest she'd been sent to destroy by the fool westerner who called himself a Watcher.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Simple Message

**Author's Note:**

> Ivan Vanko, 1990  
> Prompt: Stake  
> Alternate Universe: Sailing Down the Volga

The wood is worn into familiar smooth grooves, by fingers that are - were - smaller and thinner than his own. Ivan curls his hand into a fist around it, closing his eyes as he leans against the wall of the dingy flat that he's called home since he can remember. He cannot unsee the broken body, so delicate and so strong, sprawled on the ground before he can get to her. Slaughtered by the nest she'd been sent to destroy by the fool westerner who called himself a Watcher, who claimed he knew better than them what Kseniya should be taught, how she should fight, and what she should do.

Scowling, he pushes away from the wall, moving out into the tiny hallway. He's heard the Watchers have sent another of their kind here, to watch for new girls and vampires. To destroy the lives of Russian girls in the name of their greater good.

No.

Ivan has asked around, found out where the Watcher is staying, and he makes his way through the streets to the block of flats that houses the man. Meeting the gaze of those who are loitering nearby - human and otherwise - he watches them scatter. There will be no help for the Watcher.

He doesn't bother with any niceties, doesn't bother to pretend to be someone he's not. Just takes one of his favored new tools to the lock, cutting it and the knob out of the door before he crashes through. The Watcher isn't even paying enough attention to protect himself - looks like he's younger even than Ivan - and certainly doesn't expect to be confronted by someone human.

When the police come, they will find a wreck of a corpse that can only be identified because of the flat he's in, with a wooden stake through his heart that's a simple message to the Watchers.

Don't come to Moscow. Don't cross the path of Ivan Vanko.

**Author's Note:**

> Sailing Down the Volga is an AU which tries to fit between canons to a certain extent, and to minimize the difference from canon events. Which means, in the long run, Ivan is still going to become focused on bringing down Tony Stark, and he's going to put all his intelligence to work on that project, to the detriment of his other project (to keep an eye out for new Slayers in Moscow, and train them his own damn self, and to hell with the Watchers). I don't know where things are going to go toward the end of Iron Man II, since I suspect some of that is going to depend on if he has taken any Slayers under his wing before that, and if they go tracking him down after the jail break.


End file.
